Day 31! The last day of Frocktober 2017! It was a sunny but cold day, and decided I needed to go all out to celebrate the end, so I wore this Hell Bunny frock with a big pouffy pink petticoat, maroon tights and blue shoes. Need a closer look at the petticoat, tights and shoes? Sure:

This was the frock I attempted to wear on Day 2 and the zip broke on my way to work, so I was taking a risk trying it again on Day 31. Even though it was the last day and I was already proud of how much we’d managed to raise, before I knew it MORE donations rolled in! I was floating on air!

Also, in a lovely turn of events, the teachers at my old school Kilbreda (led by my good friend Adrienne) all frocked up this week and raised another $100 for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation. I wish I’d been there to see it! Did Mr Gallo frock up, I wonder?

OK, before we finish up this month, I need to sit you down and have some real talk with you. As I continually focused on the awful disease that is ovarian cancer this month, urging women to tune into their bodies, notice vague symptoms and prioritise their reproductive health, it dawned on me that I really needed to practice what I preached. I had a very vague symptom, and I also knew that I was years overdue for my pap smear.

Now we all know, don’t we, that a pap smear doesn’t detect ovarian cancer? That’s why we’re doing this fundraising – to help scientists come up with a screening test as effective as the pap smear is for cervical cancer, that can detect ovarian cancer much earlier. So I’m not suggesting for a moment that I went and had a pap smear for ovarian cancer, but I went because it is important for women to take care of their health and not allow ourselves to just feel “run down” without paying proper attention to what’s going on.

Good news! My pap smear was all clear! Bad news (but nowhere near as bad as it could be)! The doctor found a cyst that needs removal and I’m off to hospital soon for a minor procedure to deal with that, to prevent it becoming a bigger problem. It’s not cancer, and for that I’m immensely grateful, but it does need dealing with and could have become a big pain the (front) bottom. I’m sorry if you’re having a TMI moment, and like you didn’t need to read about my pap smear over breakfast, but I’m sharing this with you as a reminder that women’s health is easy to deprioritise in our busy daily lives as mums, workers, volunteers, students, sportspeople. And we have a stigma about talking about it, even though we have no problem detailing our hayfever symptoms and our trials and tribulations with sports (and home improvement) injuries. We don’t talk enough about women’s health because we find it a bit icky. And if we deprioritise it for too long, it could be too late.

So I’m asking you, if you have ovaries and associated bits, read this list of symptoms and risks, have a good think about them, and go and discuss them with your doctor if they ring bells with you. If your doctor dismisses your symptoms as just being worn down, but your gut tells you there’s more to it, seek a second opinion. And if you’ve been putting off your next pap smear, bite the bullet and go and have it, and have a general chat about your health while you’re there. Just prioritise you and your health for the time it takes to visit a GP – better safe than sorry.

And people who don’t have ovaries, but have ovaried loved ones, please put aside the ickiness and be prepared to have a chat about women’s reproductive health and encourage the women in your life to tune in and get checked out.

OK, serious talk over! Back to fundraising! I’m off on a short holiday tonight, and my fundraising ebay sale will finish while I’m away, so I’ll be back in about a week to give you a round-up post and share our final fundraising total, so it’s not too late to drop a donation at my page.

Until then, thanks so much for reading every day and for indulging my ridiculous wardrobe. It’s going to be bathers and shorts weather for me for the next week, but right now it’s tracky dacks!

Day 30! Only two frocking days to go and so many frocks who haven’t had a run yet! So I had to pull out one of my big guns – my Victory Parade frock that I bought myself for my 40th.

Seriously, if you’re looking for a new frock and you can afford a slightly special one, get yourself over to the Victory Parade website. So many pretty options!

At work today I was joined in frockingness by the delightful Emma. How pretty is her frock? My favourite bit is that perfect turquoise belt. I love the colour combo too!

If you’re looking at my head in these pics and saying “What the hell’s going on with your hair?” that would be a fair question. If you’re looking at my head and wondering if I’m wearing one of those headwrap turban thingies that are so popular with the Instagram fashionistas (FashionInstas?), that would also be a fair assumption. But the truth is, I went to work with bed hair because I’m too lazy to wash it because I’m on the countdown to being on holidays. And that resulted in me walking around the civic centre with a small green Muppet on my head while Council workers did double-takes.

Here’s evidence that it started neatly enough, but became completely Muppetised as the day went on.

On Day 30, the donations for the Ovarian Cancer Research Institute kept flowing in via my donation page. I was thrilled to receive a donation from Vanessa who would have to be the coolest dresser at my work! And a donation from Susan – also a classy dresser – and from Patrick, Thoa and Ky. Thanks for supporting ovarian cancer research, you lot!

When I ventured outside I discovered it was a little windy, hence the crazy eyes in one of these pics. This was fun for the shoppers at our local Vinnies when my dress ended up around my ears, revealing my blue Bonds undies to all and sundry.

As the day rolled on today, some fabulous donations rolled in. Many thanks to Claire, David, Sarah and my Dad. Dad donated a dollar for every thousand steps he walked this month. Amazing! Thank you all!

In the time that I’ve dragged my way through almost a month of frock-choosing and awkward selfies, around 120 Australian women have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. For many of them, it will be at later stages of the disease because it’s so hard to detect. So I have two important requests for you:

If you have even the vaguest symptoms in your reproductive or abdominal area, don’t ignore them. Please have a read about these symptoms and just go and have a chat with your GP and get the all-clear.

What a great sunny day Day 28 of Frocktober was! Shame I spent half of it in my PJs when it was such a frocky day, but it was nice to have a home-based day where I didn’t have to hurry to be anywhere. I didn’t put my frock on until it was time for the mini-photographer and I to head to the pool for a waterslide and a swim.

Here I am doing some kind of weird fashion lean pose, which is probably not necessary for an outfit made up of a swimsuit, a very old frock from Vinnies, a Kmart pool bag and free thongs souvenired from my hotel in Penang years ago.

We had lots of fun at the pool, and then we went and got ourselves a watermelon.

Woolies was all out of pumpkins but the mini-photographer was dead keen on carving a gourd for Halloween, so we went with a watermelon.

Somehow we managed to make it an emoji face. So festive! Rotting fruit to greet our visitors!

Finally, I switched frocks to go and be DJ Oily Shoes at Littlefoot Bar. Some very excited dancefloor ripper-uppers got all emotional when I played Ratcat, and were pointing at me singing “You-ew-ew-ew! I love you!” and saying “You KNOW forty year old women!” Which is true, I guess women’s 40ths are my specialty! So I guess I’ve moved on from when Alfred at 501 Receptions insisted he could get me lots of gigs doing 50th wedding anniversaries.

I passed an exciting Frocktober milestone on Day 28, when donations from Emma and Kate tipped me over the $3500 mark, and the Frock This Town team over the $4500 mark which was our joint goal! Thank you both, plus everyone who has donated so far. I’m proud to be amongst the Top 12 fundraisers on the Frocktober page this year.

Ahoy there sailors! You’re on the good shop Frock This Town and we are sailing our way to the end of Frocktober 2017 and towards the safe harbour of tracky dacks. On Day 27 I wore a fun and comfy Hell Bunny sailor dress, inadvertently theming it up with the All About Frocktober team on their nautical-themed day.

I really wanted to wear my sailor hat with this outfit, but I was interviewing someone for a job at work and I didn’t want to scare her into thinking she’d arrived just in time for the work Halloween Disco where her prospective boss was dressed as a sailor with mouldy hair. So I left the hat at home.

I had to pop into town during the day, which was a nice opportunity to sit in a park and eat a macaron that was actually bigger than my mouth.

The generosity of the baker behind this sweet treat is reminiscent of the generosity of my workmates Cliff and Kerrie who both sent donations to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation via my donation page yesterday. Cliff and Kerrie are always so generous in terms of ideas, conversation, moral support and general hands-on mucking-in. And on Day 27 they were generous in supporting important cancer research. I salute them!

The frock I pulled out for you on Day 26 was this Lindy Bop one. I love the colours and I love how comfy it is. I added an op shop cardi and sparkly gold shoes because Thursday.

A couple of fabulous things happened today. First, there was the school Halloween Disco to which the mini-photographer went dressed as a donut.

Then, there was a donation from the ever stylin’ Mirella, who rocks a frock proper classy-like. Thanks Mirella! Looking forward to catching up for frocks and bubbles soon.

I promise you, this month of awkward posing is very nearly over. But as we approach the last few days, I’ll ask you again – if you’ve found this incessant frock-wearing in any way interesting, please consider sending a donation to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation via my donation page. Thank you.

By Day 25 of Frocktober 2017, I was feeling a bit weary of the frocking up everyday but still motivated to want a make a difference for the women who will experience ovarian cancer, and their families. So it was a big lift to have my new Rummage Style frock to wear.

Rummage Style is the business of my old friend and old housemate, Theresa. An incredibly driven and creative woman, she has built a business making unique clothes from vintage fabrics in her Dandenong Ranges home. I’ve had my eye on this fabric on her website for a long time and can’t believe it wasn’t snapped up earlier. When I bought my blue shoes I finally realised it was time to get myself a frock to complement them.

This is one time 13 years ago when I wore a frocking ace pink dress for my birthday and Theresa made me a rollerskate cake. I love it when this girl makes stuff!

Anyway, enough about cake. Let’s remember that a woman dies every ten hours from ovarian cancer in Australia, and there is still much more we can do to help uncover an early detection test so that we can catch this cancer earlier and fewer women need to die. If you want to help with this, please send a donation to OCRF via my donation page.

On Day 24 of Frocktober I needed to choose a frock that I could cycle in because the mini-photographer was keen for us to ride to school and work together. Luckily full skirted frocks are perfect for cycling, and I have them in abundance, so I chose this green Hell Bunny one and a pair of flat shoes and I was dressed. Too easy!

It was a busy old day at work, and there was also an evening meeting to go to, but the frock saw me through all the way until I finally got home at 10pm.

It was at that point that I checked my donation page and discovered a donation from Nick. He shared a pic on Instagram today boasting he could wear a different shirt for every day of the month so I’ve invited him to join me for Shirtober next year! But for now, he’s sending some coin to the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, and I say thanks on behalf of all the young scientists in their fresh lab coats smearing things on agar dishes (which is exactly how Nick and I met).